Thanks to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, former Halifax mayor Peter Kelly can surely appreciate that his own controversial record at city hall is looking a bit less colourful.

Kelly had his hands full with a series of high-conflict issues in his last two years at city hall, which he departed a few weeks ago after 12 years as mayor.

But even Kelly’s most controversial moments — the scandal over concert funding, the eviction of Occupy protesters or his performance as executor of a will — pale in comparison to the series of events that led to Monday’s court decision to oust Ford from office.

For that matter, Gerald Tremblay, Montreal’s former mayor who resigned this month in the wake of a construction kickback scandal, takes the cake when considering the seriousness of the controversies surrounding the three civic leaders, easily trumping the woes of Ford and Kelly.

Ford’s departure, however,was far from voluntary.

The Toronto mayor is a hugely polarizing political figure who is embroiled in decisions that have made for the most outrageous of news headlines.

The bombastic Ford made a toned-down pledge on Monday to fight the court decision ordering his removal from office. In the next breath, he promised he will be back on the ballot for re-election, dismissing his ouster as a left-wing conspiracy.

Nova Scotia has had many colourful politicians over the years, many of them controversial and others who sailed determinedly ahead regardless of criticism or scandal.

But it’s tough to think of one that comes close to matching the openly bullheaded nerve of Ford.

Ford won the mayoralty in 2010 after a decade as a popular city councillor. He made his mark in the early years by paying for job-related expenses from his own salary, winning favour from taxpayers while lofting political grenades at opponents with more left-leaning views.

He comes from a prominent political family, growing up in Etobicoke and playing football before eventually working in a successful family business.

His cost-cutting measures at city hall, particularly changes to the transit program, along with the drama of a high-profile weight-loss plan, have kept him in the news and won him friends and foes.

The court’s conflict-of-interest decision that may remove him from office in two weeks was spawned by letters he sent on city hall letterhead in 2010 to people who actively lobbied city hall. The letters were seeking donations for his private football foundation, which supports high school football programs.

The city’s conflict of interest commissioner had determined he should pay back the money. Ford refused.

He also participated in a council vote on the matter, which is what led to Monday’s court ruling.

Kelly’s situation was similar, but there was no conflict of interest ruling that determined he shouldn’t have voted on a council motion to suspend him for a week in 2011.

That motion was defeated in a meeting where Kelly refused calls for him to recuse himself from chairing the meeting even though it dealt with concert-related payments he and senior staff approved that broke the city charter. Council was unaware of the deals when they were made.

In Kelly’s case, there was no direct personal financial gain from the payments, a determining feature in Nova Scotia’s municipal conflict rules, but it was one more scandal that tipped the balance against his previous plan to run again in October’s mayoral election.

Ford’s approach has been more openly contemptible of his critics. He has promised his name “will be on the ballot” if his ouster survives an appeal.

Many Canadians will watch how the country’s largest city moves through Ford’s latest political fumble and wait to see who comes out on top.

For taxpayers in Halifax, who have first-hand experience with the frustrations and cheers of having a polarizing figure as mayor, it will be refreshing to just sit back and watch the show.